U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,916,726 and 5,113,429, which are assigned to the Assignee of the present invention, disclose a telephone answering service with integrated voice and textual message storage which is controlled by a programmable controller. The programmable controller controls a textual message recording system, a voice message recording system and telephony functions, including the control of a switching matrix which is interfaced to the telephone company through voice processors, to operator stations and to lines for patching telephone calls together. An interface connects the system to a remote input/output panel which includes multiple ports which may be connected to modems or to a PBX interface for connection to a PBX system with a serial port. The system, which has been marketed by the Assignee under the trademark PCMX.RTM., does not control the switching matrix of the PBX. Serial communications between the answering system and the PBX are necessary. Additionally, the switching matrix of the telephone answering system is controlled independently of switching functions controlled by the controller of the PBX and does not perform telephonic functions of the PBX.
FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of the Assignee's answering system disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,916,726 and 5,113,429. The answering system 123 provides in a programmed personal computer 124, a textual messaging recording system 125, a voice message recording system 126 and an integrated control in the form of a programmed controller 127. The overall operation of the answering system 123 is controlled by the programmed controller 127. A suitable control program for implementing the functions of the textual message recording system 125, voice message recording system 126 and programmed controller 127 is contained in the attached Microfiche Appendix of the Assignee's above-referenced patents.
The program set forth in the attached Microfiche Appendix of the Assignee's patents is a real time multitasking program supporting multiple operators. The program supports an overall system control of the answering system and the control of recording of textual and voice messages implementing the voice recording and text recording systems. In the preferred form of the invention, the program is executed by a personal computer.
A DMA (direct memory access) circuit and memory 127' is controlled by the programmed controller 127 to control the transmission of data throughout the system over a transmission system 128 which preferably is the parallel digital data bus of the personal computer. All sources of analog data which are connected to the digital data bus are converted from analog to digital format by A to D converters. Each source data port which is connected to the digital data bus 128 addresses data to the memory in the DMA circuit and memory 127'. The programmed controller 127 then applies a destination address within the system to the data which is stored in the DMA circuit and memory 127' for transmission to the destination. Thereafter, the DMAcircuit controls the transmission of the data stored in the memory to the addressed destination data port connected to the digital data bus 128. Where necessary, the data at the addressed data port is converted to analog format by D to A converters. This form of data transmission is highly advantageous in that data transmissions between telephone input and output lines, the textual message recording system 125, the voice message recording system 126, and the operator station(s) 129 are by means of a high bandwidth digital data bus without requiring the placing of telephone calls or use of low bandwidth data communications. Suitable D to A and A to D converters in the D to A, A to D and A to A circuits 130 connect DID telephone lines 131 and telephone trunk lines 132 to the bus 128. A system storage is provided by disk 133. Printer 134 is connected to the bus 128 for providing conventional printed outputs regarding system operation. A plurality of operator stations 129 are connected to the digital data bus 128 which are operated by operators to provide operator assistance during operation of the system 123. An operator station headset control 135 is associated with each operator station 129 to permit operators at the operator stations to talk to telephone callers on the telephone lines 132 through an operator headset (not illustrated), operator headset control 135, line 136 and the analog to analog portion of the D to A, A to D and A to A circuits 130. The DID lines 131 are used conventionally to interface subscribers of a telephone answering service or a private telephone switching system with the telephone company. The at least one telephone trunk line(s) 132 couples the telephone answering system 123 to the telephone company to provide the telephone answering service with one or more check in telephone lines to obtain an up to date summary of the telephone calls which have been answered by the telephone answering service or a telephone connection to telephone circuits outside of a private telephone switching system to enable a summary of the telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system to be obtained.
The programmed controller 127 supports at least one operator station with display and keyboard 129 with support preferably being provided for a plurality of operator stations with display and keyboard. Each operator station with display and keyboard 129 is conventional. Each operator station with display and keyboard 129 is operated with an operator which provides live operator answering capability to telephone calls requiring operator intervention as discussed below. Moreover, the program listing contained in the above-referenced appendix of the Assignee's patents supports an operation in which each telephone call to be answered by the voice message recording system 126 has an operator answer the incoming telephone call and command that the call be answered under the control of the voice message recording system if the subscriber's service option described below with reference to FIG. 4 specifies that telephone calls should be answered with the voice message recording system. Preferably, the connection of the voice message recording system 126 to the telephone caller is automatically implemented by the control program interrogating the file of persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system 123 to obtain the programmed service option which, if programmed for recording of telephone calls by the voice message recording system, causes the telephone call to be recorded without operator intervention.
The disk 133 functions as the system storage for the recorded textual messages, the recorded voice messages and the control program contained in the aforementioned attached Microfiche Appendix. Furthermore, the disk 133 stores individual subscriber files of persons having telephone answering services performed by a telephone answering service utilizing the telephone answering system 133 or a file identifying persons who have telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system in conjunction with a private telephone switching network. These files contain pertinent information regarding each person serviced by the telephone answering system to be used by the control program of the telephone answering system 123 and operators operating the operator station(s) with display and keyboard 129. This information is described below with reference to FIG. 4. Furthermore, each subscriber file contains a security code which must be inputted to the system to the telephone answering system to obtain a summary of telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system. Furthermore, each file contains the service options to be utilized when the telephone answering system 123 is automatically answering telephone calls without operator intervention. These service options include programmable times at which telephone calls are to be answered by use of the textual message recording system 125 and the voice message recording system 126.
The programmed controller 127 jointly controls the textual message recording system 125 and the voice message recording system 126 as follows. A telephone call which has been forwarded to the telephone answering system 123 as a consequence of activating telephone call forwarding to the telephone answering system is received on the DID lines 131 or on other telephone lines. The DID lines may be used for other purposes such as when a person directly dials the telephone answering system 123. The number which is called is decoded by the programmed controller 127 in a conventional fashion. The decoded number provides a pointer to the file in memory to identify the service option to be utilized in answering the incoming telephone call. This service option is programmable as a function of time. Accordingly, after identification of the particular file, the programmed controller 127 compares the current time with the time programmed of the service options to choose the service option to be used at the time of the incoming telephone call. Thereafter, the programmed controller 127 controls the connection of the incoming telephone call to one of the operator stations with display and keyboard 129 and the textual message recording system 125 thereafter controls the recording of textual messages transmitted by an operator at an operator station with keyboard 129 to the system memory 133 for recording or the voice message recording system 126 controls the connection of the incoming telephone call to the system memory 133 for recording in accordance with the programmed service option. Transmissions of textual messages between the operator station with display and keyboard 129 and the system memory 133 for recording are transmitted over the digital data bus 128. Transmissions of voice messages between a telephone line and the system memory for recording are transmitted over the digital data bus 128. Textual messages are generated by the typing of the message on the keyboard of the operator station with display and keyboard 129. The transmission of system data on the digital data bus 128 substantially speeds up communications between the textual message recording system 125, the voice message recording system 126, programmed controller 127, and operator stations with display and keyboard 129 in comparison to the prior art which placed telephone calls or used low bandwidth communications. Furthermore, the utilization of a single control program which program implements the textual message recording system 125 and the voice message recording system 126 and programmed controller 127 provides maximum flexibility in permitting the telephone answering system 123 of the present invention to be configured to the needs of different environments such as telephone answering services and private telephone switching networks.
FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment 150 of the system disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,916,726 and 5,113,429 and marketed by the Assignee under the trademark PCMX.RTM.. The embodiment 150 executes the control program listed in the above-referenced attached Microfiche Appendix of the Assignee's patents. It should be understood that the textual message recording system 125, voice mail recording system 126, program controller 127 and transmission system 128 have been omitted for the reason that these elements are implemented within the programmed host system described above with reference to FIG. 1. The AT compatible computer includes a clock calendar. A pair of serial ports 154 respectively couple the host system to the system modem 156 and to system printer 158. The serial ports 154 are standard serial ports used with the International Business Systems' AT computers. An interface 160 provides an interface between the host system 152 and the operator stations 162.
The interface 160 is connected to a remote input/output panel 164 having eight ports 166. Ports 1-3 are respectively connected to the second, third and fourth operator stations 162 to transmit data to the PC compatible computer and display contained in each of the operator stations. Ports 4-8 are connected to modems and other outputs as indicated by 168, such as a remote printer, alpha paging or a PBX interface to a PBX system having a serial port. The interface 160 is an intelligent input/output processor designed to implement different serial protocols. Handling of serial protocols by the interface 160 off loads processing overhead from the host system 152 which frees the host system for performing other tasks. Data compression capability may be implemented in the host system or in the interface 160 as a consequence of the interface having an 8088 microprocessor.
Four identical voice processing boards 170 (voice processors) provide a telephony interface of the host system with the telephone network. The voice processors 170 provide four loop start telephone lines 171. From the telephone company, the voice processors 170 have the characteristics of a telephone. The voice processors 170 implement normal functions such as ring detection, software controlled answering, DTMF and dial pulse output and detection capabilities. Furthermore, the voice processors 170 digitize incoming speech for storage on the system disk as well as playing back of previously stored data. The voice processors 170 contain firmware to compress digital data. Furthermore, the voice processors 170 have dual ported RAM to enable data to be transferred to the host computer. The voice processors 170 detect whether the telephone lines to which they are coupled are ringing, busy and off hook. The voice processors 170 are programmable to listen to tones if a frequency is specified. The voice processors 170 have audio outputs for a line which may be connected to an appropriate interface such as switch matrices 172 which are discussed below to allow an incoming telephone caller to talk to a live operator. An 80186 microprocessor is contained in each of the voice processors 170 to handle control functions. The computer in the host system contains software to communicate with the microprocessor of the voice processors 170 and control all of the required telephony functions. For DID telephone lines, a ring back cadence is provided from the hard disk 133 on all incoming DID telephone calls. Furthermore, the voice processors 170 provide busy signals, messages if a wrong number comes in, automated answering for persons who have voice mail, recording and playback of messages, automatic dial out so that an operator can be processing another telephone call while a first telephone call is being dialed and DTMF decoding for automated voice mail functions. Optional DID interfaces 174 permit the loop start lines 171 to be connected to DID trunks 178. The voice processors 170 may be a D/41 board manufactured by Dialogic Corporation of Parsippany, N.J.
The switch matrices 172 provide an operator audio interface to incoming telephone calls. Moreover, the switch matrices 172 are used for operator input to voice mail. Each of the switching matrices 172 contain an 8.times.8 analog crosspoint switch. The switch matrices 172 are connected to a station adaptor 178 having 8 output lines 179. In order to permit patching of two telephone calls together, the number of lines 179 connected to operator stations has been limited to four. Lines 1-4 of the station adaptor are connected to the remote operator stations 162 and to the operator station 180 which is directly supported by the host system. Lines 5-8 of the lines 179 of the station adaptor 178 are used for patching together of two telephone calls with the capability of the operator being able to interrupt the patched telephone calls. The switching matrices are Dialogic Corporation AMX/81 boards.
FIG. 3 illustrates the interconnection of the switch matrices 172 of FIG. 2. The bracketed lines "1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th" respectively indicate connections to the first, second, third and fourth voice processors 170 described above in FIG. 3. The telephone interface 160 is used to connect operators at the operator stations to the voice processors 170 described above. Thus, if a telephone call comes in on one of the lines from the telephone company to a voice processor 170, one of the cross points on the right-hand switching matrix is closed and the signal is transmitted to the left-hand switching matrix. The signal is transmitted through the telephone interface 160 to the operator. The combined effect of the switching matrices 172 is that they jointly function as a single 16.times.8 crossover matrix. At the present time, the right-hand telephone interface is not utilized.
FIG. 4 illustrates a memory map of data contained in an individual person's file which is stored in the system memory storage disk 133 of the answering system 123. It should be understood that the terminology "person" is intended to identify all persons who are serviced by usage of the answering system including, but not limited to, subscribers of a conventional telephone answering service as well as persons who have telephones associated with private telephone switches such as PBX switches. Suitable modifications may be made to this information to service persons whose telephones are answered by private telephone switches or other applications. The "account #" identifies the number assigned to the person's account. This number is utilized for purposes of billing and account identification. The "client name" is the name of the person whose telephone is being answered. The "answer phrase" is the phrase which is desired by the person to be used when the operator answers a telephone call for purposes of greeting the telephone caller in the appropriate manner. The "message form" is a form having one or more blanks in which information provided by the telephone caller is filled in to create a complete message which is read back to the person upon telephone call in on a check in line. The "operator preference" is programmable to automatically cause a certain operator station(s) to be called when a telephone call is incoming for the person. The operator preference permits operator stations to be listed to be eligible for telephone calls according to required or preferred telephone call eligibility groups or stations. The "operator preference" permits the person to have a particular operator to be utilized for answering the person's telephones. The "DID #" is the digits assigned to the person for telephone calls incoming on a block of DID lines 131 when the answering service has been activated to answer the person's telephone. The "DID #" may be three or four digits out of the block of digits provided in a DID trunk by the telephone company. The programmed controller 127 operates to decode the DID digits of an incoming telephone call for a person and utilizes those digits as a pointer to identify the individual file. Accordingly, the DID number functions as an address of pertinent information utilized for automatic operation of the telephone answering system such as when the person desires for telephone messages to be left by operation of the voice message recording system 126 without line operator intervention. The "# of rings" is a programmable variable which is the maximum number of times a person's telephone should ring before the answering service answers with an operator or to request a voice message generated by the voice message recording system 126. The "security code" functions as a password for screening incoming telephone calls so that only authorized persons can obtain a summary of messages recorded under the control of the textual message recording system 125 and the voice message recording system 126 stored in the system memory 133.
FIG. 5 illustrates a display screen 250 utilized by the operator stations of the answering system 123. The screen 250 is organized into six blocks described as follows. The first block 254 plays an important part in the answering system's ability to facilitate an operator answering telephone calls with the highest possible degree of information individualized for the particular needs of each subscriber. Block 254, under the control of the control program contained in the above-referenced attached Microfiche Appendix of the Assignee's patents, provides the operator with one or more characteristics pertaining to a current telephone call providing information of the current telephone call to the operator station. The characteristic(s) provided in block 254 inform the operator at an operator station prior to making a connection of information utilized by the operator to compose a voice sequence in answering the telephone call which is tailored to the precise nature of the telephone call. This characteristic of block 254 may generally be referred to as "point of origin" information pertaining to a current telephone call but it should be understood that the characteristics to be displayed in block 254 are not limited to "point of origin" information. In order to provide the maximum possible personalization of answering of a person's telephone call in a manner which reflects an extension of the person's own practices of answering the telephone, it is desirable to provide the operator with information pertaining to the origin of the telephone call such as if the person has initiated obtaining a playback of voice recorded telephone calls. For example, an operator's response in answering a telephone call placed to the operator station from the person that originates after connection to the voice message recording system to obtain the voice messages recorded in the system storage 133 is usually a request to the operator for a special message such as an emergency and need not be particularized to reflect how the person wishes its telephone to be answered for a telephone call being placed to the person. Alternatively, when a telephone call is placed to the operator station requiring the operator to answer the person's telephone in a manner in which the person would answer its own phone, it is highly desirable to have the operator utilize the answer phrase as described above with reference to FIG. 4 which would be of no benefit for a check in telephone call. Moreover, from the standpoint of operator efficiency, certainty in the operator's mind regarding the precise sequence to be utilized for answering all telephone calls to the operator station is greatly facilitated by the operator knowing the characteristics of all of the telephone calls to the operator station such as their point of origin from a person obtaining recorded voice messages. With the answering system's capability of permitting automatic check in to obtain voice messages recorded under the control of the voice message recording system 126, as well as permitting connection to the operator when check in telephone calls are received from the person, the characteristic(s) displayed in block 254 provides the operator with a maximum sense of how each telephone call to the operator station should be answered as a function of where and how it originated. The characteristic information displayed in block 254 also informs the operator if the telephone call is from two telephone calls which have been connected together as described above with reference to the lines 5-8 of the station adaptor 178 illustrated in FIG. 3.
Block 256 summarizes the three most current telephone calls which await answer. If the operator is a trainee or the telephone answering system is programmed for one telephone call at a time, one telephone call will show. The telephone call being answered is highlighted with the answering information regarding the point of origin block 254 described above. Block 256 displays traffic window detail such as if the current telephone call is ringing, a talking connection exists, the telephone call is on hold or it is a conference telephone call, the number of rings, is the telephone call a check in telephone call, the account number and the account name.
The windows 258 provide an index to enable the operator to quickly identify pertinent information contained in block 260 described below. Status detail is automatically applied and highlighted at the beginning of an index line with the statuses of "urgent" indicating an urgent message, "delivered" indicating a delivered message, "voice" indicating an unplayed voice message is attached, "played" indicating that a played voice message is attached and "delivered special" indicating that a special message has been delivered. The "what's where line" identifies the contents of the index windows 258 above and the information 260 below. This line is primarily used as a training key.
Information in the index windows is keyed to reflect certain information regarding the characteristics of block 254 described above.
With reference to block 256, a "ZERO" displayed as the state of the telephone call means that the telephone call has arrived because a telephone caller dialed 0 while in a playback of stored voice message to request an operator. A "0" telephone call has not been answered by an operator. "PTCH" means that the telephone call is patched and that the operator is not involved. "TK-1" means that the operator is talking to the first party in a two party telephone call. "TK-2" means the operator is talking to the second party in a two party telephone call. "DISC" means that the telephone call has been disconnected.
Block 260 is information obtained from 8 pages of account information described above. This information may be varied by the operator. Special messages are temporary information which is stored in a blank page having twelve 38 character lines. The history is information associated with each message and special. The history lists actions taken to deliver the message. The first eleven lines show the first eleven actions and the last line is overwritten to show the latest of more than twelve actions. The history actions are reflective of the history of the person's account regarding the taking of messages by the answering system 123.
PABX systems are commercially marketed which include voice mail capability. Newly developed systems have voice mail function within the PABX architecture.
PABXs manufactured by Mitel Corporation provide an operator prompt which is produced from decoding telephone calls to telephones within the exchange which is used by the operator at an operator station at which the operator answers the telephone call to provide the operator answering the telephone call with the prompt to personalize service or otherwise provide information to be used in the absence of a person answering the called telephone within the exchange.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,939,771 discloses an attendant controlled call delivery system which utilizes a local area network (LAN) for connecting attendant units to a data base unit which is connected to a PBX.
Local area networks typically have host software which drives a network basic input/output (BIOS) system which in turn drives a network interface board. The network interface board is typically connected by a thin COAX or 10 base -T conductor which is connected to a multiplexor. Multiple outputs of the multiplexor are coupled through the aforementioned thin COAX or 10 base -T to a network interface board which drives a network BIOS which drives the peripheral device. The aforementioned LAN configuration provides high speed communications from a host processor to a plurality of peripheral devices.
Digital switching systems have been developed which provide non-blocking digital switching in which pulse code modulation is used to digitize information such as voice channels to permit controllable switching of information on the inputs to the outputs of the digital switch. For example a total of 32 voice channels may be pulse code modulated and time division multiplexed so that selected channels on the inputs of the digital switch are connected to different outputs of the digital switch. The switching required to produce the time division multiplexed switching of different channels between selected inputs and outputs is produced by control switching signals applied to the digital switches of the switching matrix.
In the field of telephony numerous manufacturers make voice digitizing boards which convert individual channels (conversation) into a time division multiplexed PCM encoded format in which multiple bits encode respective samples of each channel. On a wire pair typically 24 or 32 different channels are encoded by assigning individual channels representative of a conversation to a particular time slot within a frame of the time division multiplexed PCM encoded information. Switching of the PCM information on a bus is controlled by a digital switch which permits the selective connection of individual channels through the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to particular telephone lines.
The voice digitizing products of manufacturers such as Dialogic Corporation, Natural Microsystems Corporation, Rhetorex and the assignee of the present invention, have incompatible bus protocols which prevent direct interconnecting of buses of systems made by these manufacturers. The buses utilized by the aforementioned manufacturers and others have several possible clock rates such as 1.544 MHz, 2.048 MHz, 4.096 MHz and different 8 kHz synchronization of the frame rate as provided by specifications of integrated circuits manufactured by National Semiconductor or Mitel Corporation and further synchronization signals which define superframes utilized for T1 service which are a combination of multiples of 6 basic frames at the 8 kHz frame rate. As a result of the diversity of the clock rates, synchronization and other timing signals utilized by the various manufacturers there is no compatible bus protocol for interconnecting information systems which have been made by the interconnection of boards provided by a particular manufacturer with an information system made by interconnecting boards from another manufacturer. As a result a user of a system having digitized voice currently is required to make difficult choices as to which manufacturers' products to purchase which limit the overall functional capability of a system and the ability to modify the system in the future as a consequence of the inability to interconnect subsystems formed from products manufactured by different manufacturers.
Circuit boards are marketed which may be inserted into the expansion slot of a standard PC such as a PC-AT to control different types of analog telephone ports. These boards provide analog telephone line port receptacles for connection to the PSTN. The analog ports may be for a station port which supplies battery feed capable of applying ring voltage to a line along with normal line status and control functions for the purpose of interfacing two telephones; a loop start port of the so-called "plain old telephone service" which includes all normal line status monitoring; a ground start port which provides a ground start line interface; a DID port which provides all known RS-464 and IEEE standard DID protocols including wink, immediate start as well as DTMF and pulse dialing; an E&M port which may be configured for type I or II signalling and a battery feed port which provides battery but cannot provide ring voltage. These circuit boards have programmable jumpers or switches which permit each of the ports of the circuit to be programmed to have the desired type of line characteristic. The disadvantage of this type of circuit board is that all of the circuits necessary for supporting the types of possible line interfaces which may be provided must be present on the board even though the customer may only want to use a fraction of the overall number of line type interfaces that are supported by the board. As a result, the expense of the circuit board is increased and further the number of analog lines which may be connected to the board is lessened as a consequence of the necessary electronics for supporting all of the lines taking up space which lessens the number of ports which may be on the board.
Another design of a circuit board for interfacing a PC with analog lines does not permit the programming of the characteristic of the line to which the circuit board is to be connected. Each circuit board of this type is hard-wired to support one or more types of analog line interfaces. As a result, this product is not programmable and may be only used for specific applications for specific connections to analog lines which prevents it from being reconfigured by the customers to interface with different types of analog lines.